The museum building incorporates three functions: a permanent and thematic exhibition function, an exhibit function for art groups and a cultural activities function. In response to the fore-mentioned three required functions, Maekawa established a broad open space in the middle and arranged a the building around it to create his basic composition.
Name: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum│Type: Museum│Architect: Kunio Maekawa │Completed: 1975
Location
1975 – Reiyukai Shakaden Temple – Takenaka Corporation
The Reiyukai Shakaden Temple in central Tokyo consists of the main hall, the public plaza, Kotani hall, conference rooms and a medical center. The temple was completed in 1975, after four years of construction. The main hall has a capacity of 3’500 people. The roof and facade is covered with dark granite, its formal expression is inspired by traditional temple roof. The eclectic architecture of Reiyukai Shakaden is influenced by Seiichi Shirai’s idea of the bizzare.
Name: Reiyukai Shakaden Temple│Type: Temple│Architect: Takenaka Corporation │Completed: 1975
Location
1974 – Mizuho Corporate Bank – Togo Murano
Shaped with a peculiarly sharpe edge as its north facade, the building cuts into the space of the busy Eitai Dori Avenue it faces. On the east side, the facade is covered with polished stone-covered vertical wall segments which are also triangular. This project by the highly versatile Togo Murano brought his architecture close to Seiichi Shirai’s design paradigm of the bizzare (see: Noa Building, 1974).
Name: Mizuho Corporate Bank│Type: Office│Architect: Togo Murano │Completed: 1974
Location
1974 – Noa Building – Seiichi Shirai
Built in 1974, the 15-storey building consists of a red-brick pedestal of about 8 meters height and a steel-covered and sculpture-like oval upper part that is dotted with very few windows, although the 8th floor has a full-length one. Monumental is the rusticated red brick lower section, which acts as a podium on which sits the high, oval block. To heighten the effect, an oversized and super-human arched gate leads to a rather dark, almost cryptiv entry space.
Name: Noa Building│Type: Office│Architect: Seiichi Shirai │Completed: 1974
Location
1976 – House in Uehara – Kazuo Shinohara
This house is located in Uehara, a well-to-do suburb of Tokyo less than half an hour from the city’s financial district. Consequently, the Uehara lot is quite small and the dwelling itself is some 9 metres on one side with no garden, while the main façade and carport give directly onto the narrow road. The client was an art photographer and the ground floor comprises his studio with a darkroom.
The upper storey is composed principally of the standard Japanese living-dining-kitchen space, although the kitchen and stair areas are partially screened by a massive articulated concrete pillar. This monolith burgeons with great struts rising to support the beamless concrete flat-slab roof and is part of a giant forest-like order whose tops are imposed and revealed throughout the residential storey.
Name: House in Uehara│Type: residential│Architect: Kazuo Shinohara │Completed: 1976
Location
1973 – Hotel Okura South Wing – Yoshiro Taniguchi
After the tragic demolition of the main building, built in 1964 by Yoshiro Taniguchi, the remaining South Wing allows to retrace its architecure: Located in Toranomon on what had been a feudal estate, the Okura is an extraordinary testament to a key moment in Japanese design. It was built by an exceptionally gifted and diverse group that included the architects Yoshiro Taniguchi and Hideo Kosaka, the folk artist Shiko Munakata and the potter Kenkichi Tomimoto. Together they created a unique modern design that referenced the traditional colours, shapes and crafts of Japan.
Unlike many postwar Tokyo buildings, whose primary models of modernism were strictly Western, the Okura was built to evoke Japanese-ness, at least as perceived by foreigners. Among other frills, this meant hexagonal hanging lamps shaped like ancient gems and partitions edged with kimono fabrics.
Name: Hotel Okura South Wing│Type: Hotel│Architect: Yoshiro Taniguchi │Completed: 1973
Location
1972 – Nagakin Capsule Tower – Kisho Kurokawa
The module of Nagakin Capsule Tower was created with the intention of housing traveling businessmen that worked in central Tokyo during the week. It is a prototype for architecture of sustainability and recycleability, as each module can be plugged in to the central core and replaced or exchanged when necessary. Built close to Shimbashi Station, a total of 140 capsules are stacked and rotated at varying angles around a central core, standing 14-stories high. The technology developed by architect Kisho Kurokawa allowed each unit to be installed to the concrete core with only 4 high-tension bolts, which keeps the units replaceable. Each capsule measures 4 x 2.5 meters, permitting enough room for one person to live comfortably. The interior space of each module can be manipulated by connecting the capsule to other capsules.
Residents of the tiny pods are now plotting its demolition; although the capsules were built to be replacable, the building has not been maintained in over 35 years which has led to drainage and damaged water pipes. Architects from around the world are trying to work together to preserve the towers, considering all ideas and options.
Name: Nagakin Capsule Towers│Type: Residential│Architect: Kisho Kurokawa │Completed: 1972
Location
1971 – Pola Home Offices – Nikken Sekkei
The Pola Home Offices building achieves a synthesis between structural design and architectural and spatial articulation. In between two stair-and-elevator cores at the ends, large, story-high girders are spanned providing a solution wherebythe space of the lobby could be freed from intermediary columns. The lobby seems to expand beyond its physical limits and to be defined by the train embankment in front and the equally sloping and planted roof at the back.
Name: Pola Home Offices│Type: Office│Architect: Nikken Sekkei │Completed: 1971
Location
1970 – Niban-kan – Minoru Takeyama
An enigmatic Japanese building, the Niban-kan, became renowned after its appearence on the cover of Charles Jencks’ “The Language of Post-Modern Architecture” in 1977. Its rise to the status of an icon of Supergraphics, along with its adjacent brother building the Ichiban-kan, would overshadow its great urban qualities. Originally it was painted colorful with geometric patterns in yellow, red, black and grey. Today the building appears in restrained in black and grey, it unfortunately lost of its iconographic quality.
Name: Niban-kan│Type: Commercial│Architect: Minoru Takeyama│Completed: 1970
Location
1970 – New Sky Building – Yoji Watanabe
Altough not as famous as Kisho Kurokawa’s emblematic Nakagin Capsule Tower, the ominous New Sky Building designed by Yoji Watanabe is one of the jewels from the Metabolist movement. The building completed in 1972 in Shinjuku features bolt-on units and balconies characteristic of Metabolism’s ideal of modularity. Its naval appearance isn’t accidental as Watanabe, supposedly born on a US navy ship, borrowed techniques from submarine building. The theme culminates in the roof design which features a battleship deck-looking floor, with a defining submarine sail-like concrete structure.
Name: New Sky Building│Type: Housing│Architect: Yoji Watanabe│Completed: 1970
Location
architecture tokyo 